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As somebody who has just joined the forum, I found this an excellent post. I am still trying to learn all the facts and details posted by people, many of which you have assimilated here. Thanks for helping me along.

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this is a message about what ive experienced with this site. i have had a debt caused by a cosign on a lease agreement on an apartment with my 2 sons. they signed, and i cosigned a lease agreement for 1 year with an apartment complex and after 9 months, they couldnt make the rent anymore. heres the short of it, i have endevored so long to make sure my credit report is spotless. when this account went to collections, i was worried. first, the origional "eviction" filing was for 729$, the penalty for a broken lease. when the ca contacted me, it was for 1070.21$. i disputed the amount and the ca didnt respond for 5 months. when they first responded, they talked to a third party to discuss the debt. i still tried to work things out with them, then they posted a collection on my credit report. this infurated me. i sent them a demand letter and when they didnt respond, filed a suite in small claims in oklahoma. keep in mind, in oklahoma, collection agencys are forbidden from filing claims in small claims court. this went to court today and this is how it played out. the case went to mediation before court (mandated). in the mediation, the lease agreement became front and center. ill put it this way, courts in oklahoma dont want things go to court, they prefer things to work out in mediation. with that being said, the mediator made it clear to me that, although i may win my 1000$, the lease had 3 months left and the judge would rule that, i would be responsible for the remainder of the lease. i may win my 1000$, but that would be offset by far with the lease judgement. when i brought up about ca not being able to filing claims in small claims court, it was reminded me that i brought the claim, they didnt. in short, i ended up paying in full, and felt glad to get that, considering if it went to court, i would have won, but i would have had to pay the rest of the lease, which would have more than offset any claim i had. in short, i would have been better to just forget the debt that to try to chalange it. forget the debt, i owe nothing. chalange it, now i owe 1070$.

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After a divorce, it is easier to take care of some of the smaller joint collections yourself.

"Credit Repair" companies are worthless. $700 and 18 months for no change in my scores, vs 6 months and 90+ point increase by doing it myself.

If you choose to pay a collection, a phone call to the OC goes a long way in helping you negotiate a payment. Also during negotiation, pointing out that the debt really belonged to the spouse and the court ruled that each party is responsible for their own debts prior to dissolution (don't know if that would hold up if a CA sues, but the people on the phone tend to listen) also helps the negotiation process. I settled 3 small (less than $200) for the original amounts (no fees, interest, etc...) and got them removed from my report with that.

A key to negotiating with CA is to keep your cool. As hard as it might be and as much of a jerk as they may be, stay friendly. If they get nasty, talk to their supervisor.

If the person at the CA breaks any rules, immediately go for the supervisor. I got one to settle for 50% of the original amount because the collector threatened to sue. I asked for her boss, explained the situation and the violation, told him that I'd still be willing to settle for a fraction just to make this go away and be done with it vs reporting their violation and dragging it out. I also got a PFD out of that one.

Credit monitoring is a necessity. I found that my car loan had been incorrectly reported as late when it wasn't and several other errors. CRAs are not perfect and they do report erroneous info.

Document everything! Try to do everything via mail (email, USPS, etc...), but if you can't then at least make a note of the conversation with the date, time, who you talked to and what was said. On the occasions that I had to do this via telephone I emailed the details to myself to help verify the date/time. I figured that since a few of those helped during my divorce then it certainly couldn't hurt here. When it comes down to your word vs theirs, having something like that could be the difference in who the court believes.

Don't panic and don't be intimidated.

Don't wait for tomorrow - make the time today to do it.

As bad as things may look, it will get better with even just a small effort. But if you don't try, things can get a lot worse.

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The basic fact in repairing credit is not to skip monthly payment towards the creditors. It is always good to pay more than the minimum payment due in a month to any creditor and thus to overcome the debt much before the stipulated time.

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I am looking for a thread that told you step by step how to repair your credit. It started with a list of things to buy from the store. I know it said to get 4 notebooks. I cannot find it now. Anyone else know where it might be?

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One, it was a recent over 30 from February 2013. I had no idea that my score tanked about 100 points until my scores were pulled for a mortgage loan recently. Over tha last years, this site has helped me so much. This was the only derog on my report. I was kicking myself for forgetting to pay that one card. It has been more than 8 years since i paid anything late.

Another important tip that I learned. The higher your score, the harder your fall for even one single missed payment. Thank goodness for goodwill!!!

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When sending a DV letter, all you need to write is "I dispute this debt." This is from two different attorneys that I used and of course they are right! No need to complicate the simple! I sued two different CAs and won; one was for FDCPA violations and the other was for FDCPA and TCPA violations. My attorney just filed my third lawsuit and we are working on a class action for my fourth.

I always add this in my DV letters and in all correspondence: If you have this phone number xxx-xxx-xxxx on file, please be advised that this is a cell phone number and any previous consent that I may have given XXX or any affiliates of XXX is hereby revoked.

When establishing new credit, soon after, I revoke consent to call my cellphone. That is the only phone I have by the way.

Regarding TCPA violations: If you have a smart phone, take a picture of the call that came in from the creditor or CA to help create the call log. I always try and answer and not say anything or say hello? over and over so that I can also have a call log from my cell phone provider.

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I guess so on the congrats. All of the companies that I sued put me through literal hell with phone harassment so I didn't feel bad about suing them. The second suit, we settled for $12,000 and that was mostly TCPA violations.